Musical instrument



July 15, 1969 w, WATSON ET AL 3,456,062

MUSICAL INSTRUMENT Filed May 21, 1965 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 .N 50 5 a mg m m H F. T N a Q m N %.2 9d J m r y m m 2% M m R B y a m 1w 5 fx 1 w WA Kn m m r D. n H. M W m m i m 27,. W n W w 0 ww 5 m 3m. WH..." u H SN E f M E7. W n a Z a u 2 m m m a F M u f.

United States Patent U.S. Cl. 84-1.01 11 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The disclosure concerns a musical instrument that combines hand and mouth operations to control an electrical circuit to produce musical tones.

This invention relates generally to musical instruments, and more particularly concerns electrically operable wind type instruments for producing musical sounds in an unusually effective and simple manner.

Conventional wind type instruments such as the brasses and reeds are constructed to require blowing thereof in such manner that the blown air sets up an acoustic vibration in the instrument, and resulting in the characteristic sound output thereof. One important reason why a beginner finds such instruments difiicult to play is the necessity of training the lips or mouth to vibrate or otherwise act upon the instrument mouthpiece in a required manner to produce the desired quality output tone or sound.

The present invention has as its major object the provision of a wind instrument that obviates the above difiiculty in an unusually advantageous and novel manner, greatly simplifying the manner of playing the instrument and adapting it especially for use by children either as a toy or a high quality instrument. Basically, the apparatus comprises a body having the configuration of a wind instrument with a mouthpiece, an electrical signal responsive speaker on the body, electrical circuit means having electrical connection with the speaker to supply it with an oscillatory signal for producing musical sound emission from the speaker, and an element operable by the player to control energization of the circuit, that element typically being mouth operable and located at the instrument mouthpiece. In this regard, the element may comprise an air pressure responsive electrical switch, or a mouth =bite sensitive switch, or it may even comprise a microphone. Also, the body configuration typically forms a hollow bell, and the speaker may be contained by the body to direct sound to travel from within and to the exterior of the bell.

Another object of the invention is to provide in such an instrument a circuit that includes electrical oscillator apparatus operatively connected between the mouth operable element and the speaker, that apparatus including multiple oscillators at least one of which has a fixed output frequency and another of which has a variable impedance element operable to vary the other oscillator output frequency, there also being a manually operable control to variably displace the impedance element. As will appear, the control may comprise a trombone slide to vary an inductive impedance either smoothly or in stepwise relation to facilitate ease of instrument playing. The fixed and vari- 3,456,062 Patented July 15, 1969 able frequency outputs of the above mentioned oscillators are typically applied to a mixer to produce a reduced or beat frequency which is amplified and applied to the speaker.

Other objects of the invention include the provision for octave shifting of the sound output in an unusually effective manner; the provision of multiple oscillators of fixed but differing frequencies in the audio range together with a variable frequency oscillator in that range to simulate a bagpipe instrument; and the provision in the circuit between the mouth element and speaker of a pulse shaping network to control the tone of sound emission from the speaker.

These and other objects and advantages of the invention, as well as the details of an illustrative embodiment, will be more fully understood from the following detailed description of the drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation showing the invention adapted to a trombone type instrument;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged section taken through the slide of the FIG. 1 trombone to show manual slide control of a variable impedance element;

FIG. 3 illustrates a modification of the slide;

FIG. 4 is a block form diagram of the electrical circuit which may be incorporated in the FIG. 1 instrument;

FIG. 5 shows one way of mechanizing the FIG. 4 block diagram;

FIG. 6 illustrates another circuit incorporating the in vention;

FIG. 7 shows a mouth control element which may be used in the FIG. 6 circuit;

FIG. 8 illustrates another modified mouth control element, which may be used in the instrument shown in FIG. 1;

FIG. 9 illustrates still another block diagram form circuit for use in the invention; and

FIG. 10 shows the mouth control element usable in conjunction with the FIG. 9 circuit.

Referring first to FIGS. 1 and 2, the musical instrument may take the form of a trombone 10, either of a toy or a higher quality variety, and comprising a body 11 provided with a bell 12 and a mouthpiece 13. The body carries an electrical signal responsive speaker, which may for example be contained by the body to direct sound to travel from within to the exterior of the bell. In FIG. 1 the speaker 14 is contained within the bell, and the numeral 15 designates the electrical circuit means having electrical connection with the speaker to supply an oscillatory electrical signal thereto for producing musical sound emission from the speaker. In this regard, there is a mouth operable element at the mouthpiece 13 to control energization of the circuit means 15.

While different types of mouth operable elements at the mouthpiece 13 are contemplated, one form of such element is seen in FIG. 8 to include an air pressure responsive electrical switch designated at 16. The switch is contained within the mouthpiece 13 and may comprise an air pressure responsive actuator disc 17 which is spring urged at 18 toward the entrance 19 to the mouthpiece, whereby when the player blows against the disc 17 it is urged inwardly of the mouthpiece. The disc may carry a contact 20 adapted when urged inwardly to contact a pair of electrical terminals 21 and 22, thereby effecting electrical energization of the circuit. Terminal 22 may project outwardly from the mouthpiece to engage an end terminal of a removable battery 23, the opposite end terminal of the battery being grounded to the mouthpiece by a clip contact 24. A holder 25 is pivotally attached at 26 to the mouthpiece to retain the battery in position. The other electrical terminal 21 is seen .to expand inwardly for leading the current to the circuit means 15. It will thus be seen that the player may effect operation of the instrument by merely blowing into the mouthpiece in any manner, as contrasted with the critical and difficult to master blowing technique required to operate a conventional wind instrument.

Referring to FIG. 7, the modified mouth control element is further simplified in that the terminals 21a and 22a are lengthened to project outwardly of the mouthpiece 13. They are then adapted to be urged into contact with each other in response to biting by the player, thereby to effect energization of the circuit. Note in this regard that the parts 17-20 of FIG. 8 are denoted, while the parts 23-26 thereof are incorporated into the FIG. 7 device.

Referring now to FIG. 4, the electrical circuit means is shown in block form within the broken line block 15. Generally speaking, the circuit includes electrical oscillator apparatus operatively connected between the mouth control element 30 and the speaker, the oscillator apparatus including multiple oscillators at least one of which, as for example oscillator 31, has a fixed output frequency f and another of which, as for example oscillator 32, has a variable output frequency f Further, oscillator 32 is characterized as having a variable impedance element operable to vary the output frequency f thereof, there also being a manually operable control 33 to variably displace the impedance element in oscillator 32. One form of such a control is shown in FIG. 2 as a trombone slide 34 for moving a core rod 35 in relation to an induction coil 36, the latter comprising the variable impedance element of the oscillator 32. The modified form of FIG. 3 shows the slide 34a connected to a rod 37 mounting spaced core bodies 38, as for example ferrite, and of different size corresponding to the desired discretely different musical notes to be emitted from the speaker. Accordingly, when the slide is operated, the core bodies 38 are brought successively into such inductance varying relation to the coil 36 that the notes of the musical scale are emitted from the speaker, in ascending or descending order as desired.

Referring back to FIG. 4, the circuit 15 includes a mixer section 39 connected to receive the outputs of the oscillators 31 and 32, and to produce a beat frequency output at 40 to be varied in response to operation of the manual control 33. The circuit also includes a power amplifier 41 and a driver 42 therefor connected to receive the mixer output, and to drive the speaker 14. A pulse shaping network may be provided between amplifier 39 and driver 42, as indicated at 200, connection 40 then being omitted.

Before referring to the detailed circuit of FIG. 5, reference will be made to FIG. 6 circuit means 42 which vary somewhat from the FIG. 4 block diagram. In FIG. 6 a series of paralleled oscillators 43-46 are provided, with oscillators 43-45 having fixed output frequencies in the audio range, and which are spaced in a selected relationship. A switch 210 controls energization of these oscillators, as from a power source 211. On the other hand, the oscillator 46 has a variable output frequency which may be hand controlled at 47 by the player. The outputs of the oscillators are fed to the power amplifier 48 through the driver 49, and the circuit is connected to the speaker 50 as before. With the oscillators also incorporating suitable pulse shaping networks, the instrument may provide music resembling the sound of a bagpipe. The mouth control element 51 for turning on the oscillator 46 may take the form of the element shown in FIG. 7, for example.

Referring now to FIG. 9, the circuit 52 there shown has its input connected to a mouth operable element comprising a microphone 53. One form of such a microphone is shown in FIG. 10 as contained by the mouthpiece 54 and powered by the battery 55. The circuit 52 includes a first amplifier 56, the pulse shaping network 57 and a power amplifier 58 connected in series for driving the speaker 59. Accordingly, whatever sound made by the player at the mouthpiece provides a vibration resulting in an oscillatory signal transmitted from the microphone, an amplified version thereof being transmitted to the pulse shaping network. The latter suitably shapes the signal to a form such that the speaker 59 emits a sound closely resembling the sound of the particular musical instrument desired, i.e. one of the brass or reed instruments. In this regard, the frequency of the speaker output is determined by the frequency of the humming or other sound picked up by the microphone 53, whereby the player may for example, hum the musical scale, and the instrument will emit a trombone or other instrument sound ascending or descending through the musical scale.

Turning now to FIG. 5, the detailed circuit there shown illustrates one way in which the FIG. 4 diagram may be mechanized. The power source, as for example battery 23, is connected through switch 16 with the collector terminals and 71 of the two oscillator transistors 72 and 73. The frequency determining network placed in the base circuit of transistor 72 having base terminal 74 includes inductance 75 and capacitors 76 through 78. Bias conditions are provided by resistors 79 and 80, and feedback and load resistors are provided at 81 and 82. The oscillator output is taken from the emitter at 83 and coupled to the base terminal 84 of the mixer-amplifier transistor 85 via coupling capacitor 86 and resistor 87.

Referring to the variable oscillator transistor 73, the frequency determining network connected with the base electrode 88 thereof includes fixed inductance 89, variable inductance 90, capacitors 91-92, and by-pass capacitor 93. An added inductance coil 94 may be connected across coil through a switch 95 to give an octave change in the musical tone emission from the speaker. Bias conditions are provided by resistors 96 and 97, while feedback and load resistors are provided at 98 and 99. The variable frequency oscillator output is taken from the emitter at 100 and coupled to the base terminal 84 of the transistor 85 via coupling capacitor 101 and resistor 102. In this regard, the two oscillators may be alike as regards their components and the values thereof, excepting for the two inductances 90 and 94, whereby the frequency output from the variable oscillator may be centered at and varied from the frequency of the fixed oscillator.

Mixer-amplifier transistor 85 has a grounded emitter 103 and a collector 104 connected to the battery through load resistor .105. Base bias is provided by resistor 106. The output from the transistor 85 is coupled to the base 112 of the driver stage transistor 107 via potentiometer 108 and coupling capacitor 109. Wiper arm 110 of the potentiometer may be displaced by the player, as indicated by the actuator 111 (which may be mouth or finger actuated), to vary the loudness or intensity of sound emission from the speaker. Capacitor 113 filters out the fundamental oscillator frequency at the collector terminal 104 leaving only the audio difference frequency as the signal.

Driver transistor 107 has a base bias resistor .115, a grounded emitter 116, and its collector 117 is connected to the primary 118 of transformer 119. The push-pull power amplifier includes transistors 120 and 121, voltage divider resistors 122 and 123 and stabilizing resistors .124 and 125. The collector outputs are applied across the primary of the output transformer 126.

Purely illustrative values for the circuit elements in FIG. 5 are as follows:

All transistors 2N652 Resistors: Ohms 79 1K 80 2K 81 150 82 1K 87 1K 96 1K 97 2K 98 150 99 1K 102 1K 105 1K 106 91K 115 27K 122 7.5K 1Z3 150 124 18 125 18 Capacitors: Microfarads 76 .1 77 .1 78 .1 86 .1 91 .1 92 .1 93 .1 101 .1 109 100 Battery volts 9 Inductance:

75 mh 1 89 mh 1 90 ahn 50 94 ,..h 40 Speaker ohms 8 We claim:

1. A musical instrument, comprising a body having the configuration of a wind instrument with a mouthpiece, an electrical signal responsive speaker on the body, electrical circuit means having electrical connection with the speaker to supply an oscillatory electrical signal thereto for producing musical sound emission from the speaker, a mouth operable switching element at said mouthpiece to control on-otl energization of said means, a manually operable sliding control on the body for controlling said means to vary the sound tone, said control being in the form of a trombone slide and having a linear range of positions corresponding to a predetermined tone range, said circuit means including electrical oscillator apparatus operatively connected between said element and said speaker, and said apparatus including multiple oscillators at least one of which has a fixed output frequency and another of which has a variable impedance element operable to vary the other oscillator output frequency, said manually operable control connected to variably displace said impedance element.

2. The instrument as defined in claim 1 in which said circuit means includes a mixer connected to receive the outputs of said oscillators and to produce a beat frequency output to be varied in response to operation of said manual control, said circuit means also including a power amplifier and driver therefor connected to receive said beat frequency output.

3. The instrument as defined in claim 1 in which at least two oscillators have fixed oscillation frequencies in the audio range and which are different.

4. An instrument as defined in claim 1 in which said clement comprises an air pressure responsive electrical switch.

5. An instrument as defined in claim 1 in which said element comprises a microphone, and said circuit means includes a shaping network to control the tone of the sound emission from the speaker.

6. An instrument as defined in claim 1 in which said body configuration forms a hollow bell, and said speaker is contained by said body to direct sound to travel from within to the exterior of said bell.

7. An instrument as defined in claim 1 in which said circuit means includes a pulse shaping network to control the tone of the sound emission from the speaker.

8. An instrument as defined in claim 7 in which said element comprises a microphone, and said circuit means includes electrical signal amplification apparatus.

9. An instrument as defined in claim 7 in which said element includes an electrical switch, and said circuit means includes electrical oscillator apparatus connected in series between said switch and said pulse shaping network.

10. The instrument as defined in claim 2 in which said other oscillator also includes a step impedance and manually operable switch means therefor for shifting the output frequency of said other oscillator sufficiently to secure an octave shift in said beat frequency output of the mixer.

11. A musical instrument, comprising a body having the configuration of an instrument with a mouthpiece, an electrical signal responsive speaker on the body, electrical circuit means including oscillator .apparatus having electrical connection with the speaker to supply an oscillatory signal thereto for producing musical sound emission from the speaker, said apparatus adapted to receive energization from a power supply, said mouthpiece including an electrical switch which when bitten effects energization of the oscillator apparatus from said power supply, said oscillator apparatus including an inductance tuner in the form of relatively movable coil and core elements, said core element comprising multiple ferrite bodies to be brought successively into such inductance varying relation with the coil that tones of the musical scale are emitted from the speaker in predetermined sequence corresponding to said relative movement.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,823,716 9/1931 Young 84-1.01 1,823,724 9/1931 Carlson 84-1.0l 2,301,184 11/1942 Arnold 841.0l 2,514,490 7/1950 Hanert 841.01 3,126,436 3/1964 Hyden 84l.01 2,370,714 2/1945 Carlson 334-76 2,528,167 10/1950 Pan 334-76 ARTHUR GAUSS, Primary Examiner H. A. DIXON, Assistant Examiner U.S. Cl. X.R. 84-12 

